Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Trimester

When you search for "trimester" images on Google, you get hundreds of photos of pregnant bellies.

Ummm...that wasn't quite what I had in mind.

I teach at a high school on a trimester schedule. Instead of two 18-week semesters every year, there are three 12-week trimesters. The class periods are a little longer (70 minutes for trimester, 50 minutes for semester), so students have the same amount of instructional time for a given course in two trimesters that they would get in two semesters.

On a trimester schedule, students take 5 classes every day, and teachers teach 4 classes + a prep period. At a semester high school, students usually complete 6 credits per year. At a trimester high school, students complete 7 1/2 credits per year, which allows them to take more electives or make up classes if they fail something.

Gee, I'd like to be funny or clever, but I'm too tired. It's the end of the trimester. We gave finals yesterday and today. Tomorrow is our grading day. Hooray for the Thanksgiving holiday almost here! On Monday we'll go back to school...to new classes...new students...aggghhhh!!!

So at the big blue house on Laurel Lane, here's what the end of the trimester looks like.

And because things look like this tonight...this is all I'm going to write!

1 comment:

Good luck finishing up your grading. For some reason, whenever I think about OC's finals schedules being different it makes me a bit...almost sad. I always had finals on my birthday when they were on semesters...and I liked it...that meant it was a half day and I wasn't generally all that worried about my finals.

Good luck! I hope things go well getting ready for your new students. :)

Why I Write

Kathy Haynie writes as witness to the mundane and miraculous, the holy and hilarious. She is matriarch to an astonishingly large blended family: 1 husband, 9 children, and 25 grandchildren, which attests to possibility, complexity, agony, and joy. But most especially, joy.